


caught between confusions

by blackwell



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Avengers Tower, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, POV Bruce Banner, SHIELD Agent Darcy Lewis, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:25:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackwell/pseuds/blackwell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: 5 times Bruce wanted to ask Darcy out but couldn't/talked himself out of it. 1 time the Hulk <strike>got pissed off enough</strike> did it for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	caught between confusions

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (very belated) fill for a beautiful prompt over at [avengerkink](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/) that I have in no way done justice to.

Bruce Banner meets Darcy Lewis on a Wednesday in late October, about half an hour after the Avengers gathered for movie night.

He doesn’t remember what they were watching that evening—it was Natasha’s turn to pick, and as always she had selected something absolutely horrible in the hopes that they could all mock it together. 

He does remember that they got the film all ready to go in Tony’s tricked-out Blu-Ray player, but they didn’t press play. It wasn’t an ordinary movie night—Thor was coming, and he was bringing Jane.

Jane, and Darcy Lewis. Bruce would like to be able to say he fell for her at first sight, but it was later, when the lights were down and her face was bathed in a faint blue glow from the screen. The hero stood up, delivered a particularly horrendous line, and shot the villain in the face in a single triumphant moment featuring what had to be the worst special effects Bruce had ever seen.

Darcy raised a hand and covered her eyes, looking for all the world as if she couldn’t bear to think a human being had created this film, and Bruce’s heart skipped a beat.

 

He asks questions about her. Learns she works for Jane but is also getting a poli-sci degree somewhere. Where? No one seems that interested, and he doubts he can press the matter without coming off as creepy.

He finds out where when she turns up at his apartment door one evening with Natasha Romanoff beside her.

“Bruce? Thank god, she said you lived here but she’s getting a little crazy with the blood loss.”

That’s when he looks beyond Darcy to Natasha and realizes the front of her shirt is stained red.

He invites them in, calls 911, and as he sits beside Natasha and puts pressure on the wound, Darcy makes a cup of coffee in the kitchen. When she comes back in, she says, “You know Fury, right?”

“If you apply a liberal definition of ‘know,’ I suppose.”

“Well, tell him that next time he sends Natasha fucking Romanoff to spy on the dean of my school, he should warn me first.”

 

Fury calls Darcy in to testify about that mission. Bruce bumps into her in the hallway outside of the conference room, right across from what has to be the world’s most high-security Starbucks.

It would be so easy to ask if she wants to get coffee.

He almost does. He swears he almost does, but then Fury comes out of the conference room to join them.

“What are you doing skulking about in this hallway, Banner?”

Darcy snorts. “Bruce? _Skulking?_ Really?”

Fury turns his good eye on her with a look that makes it quite clear he is not accustomed to being laughed at. “I apologize, Mr. Banner,” he says, his tone forced. “I may have confused your mannerisms with those of your teammates.”

 

Darcy gets a job at SHIELD a couple weeks later.

Bruce isn’t sure what Fury’s paying her for, exactly, but it seems to involve a lot of hanging out at Avengers Tower. She falls in love with Tony’s workshop the second she sets foot in it, and Tony—after an hour of following her around and cringing every time her eyes light on something new—eventually accepts that she’ll never leave of her own free will.

Darcy takes to standing by Bruce as he works, handing him the manuals he asks for and stopping his pencils from rolling off the desk. 

He almost asks her then—the words are right there—but he turns his head a little to the left, looks right at her, and there’s no way, _no way,_ she’s going to say yes.

He holds his tongue.

 

Sometimes, the days at Avengers Tower are slower. Sometimes, Bruce doesn’t go down to the workshop, and when he doesn’t, Darcy doesn’t either. They sit in the kitchen with the others and talk, or listen to the radio, or read.

Today, Thor is telling war stories. 

“And then, the Rabbit-Beasts of Doom had the Hulk nearly surrounded, and though I have the greatest faith in my comrade,” he nods to Bruce, “I confess my heart was uneasy. But the Hulk picked up the nearest Rabbit-Beast, and, with his great cry of _SMASH_ …”

Darcy snorts. “His great cry of _what_?”

Thor just looks at her, seeming a bit put out at having been interrupted. “SMASH.”

“ _SMASH_?”

“SMASH.”

“Seriously, Bruce? SMASH?”

“Is it really necessary to mock my alter ego like this?” Bruce asks, but he’s chuckling.

“SMASH,” Darcy says, and she bends over the table, dissolving into giggles. “SMASH.” She can barely breathe now, she’s laughing so hard. “SMASH.”

“Alright, SMASH girl,” Bruce says, thumping her on the back. “Calm down.”

She looks very beautiful when she laughs. He doesn’t tell her that, though.

 

The first time Darcy’s new SHIELD job puts her in harm’s way, it’s Thor’s Rabbit-Beasts again. They’ve leveled the northwest corner of a small Connecticut town and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. 

The Avengers are sent in at 1300 hours. Darcy Lewis is supposed to follow with her camera at 1500 hours, but someone messes up. A typo—that’s what it must have been, they realize later—has her there at 1400 hours, when the battle is still in full swing.

The SHIELD agent who flew her in takes one look at the situation and tells her to get her seatbelt back on, but a Rabbit-Beast crushes the nose of their helicopter into the ground. 

Darcy is lifted up, up, up, as she keeps her eyes screwed shut because there’s a very good chance she’s about to die and she doesn’t see a reason why she should have to watch something so unpleasant. 

“SMASH girl,” she hears a voice say, and she can’t quite believe it. “SMASH girl safe.”

The Hulk sets her down on a side street, well away from the Rabbit-Beasts and the havoc they’re currently causing.

“Ah, Hulk,” she says, as her heart rate returns to normal, “thanks. I owe you one.”

She looks up to see the Hulk looking down at her. “Coff—ee?”

She frowns.

“Coff—ee?”

“Coffee?” And then she gets it. “I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested, please feel free to look me up on [tumblr](http://blackwellwrites.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/blackwellspeaks).


End file.
